Roundup of the Silicon Prairie at SXSW 2012

With South by Southwest Interactive one week behind us, we’ve compiled links to articles, blog posts, tweets, photos, audio and video that cover or mention Silicon Prairie-based entrepreneurs and startups that took part in the event. During the five-day festival in Austin, Texas, a number of individuals from the Silicon Prairie participated on panels, competed in the accelerator, attended the awards or threw a party.

Editor’s note: Links will be added as we find them. If you know of an item we’re missing, whether it’s a blog post or tweet, please send it to editor@siliconprairienews.com.

Panels

Dwolla’s Ben Milne and Zaarly’s Bo Fishback speak with our own Jeff Sobotski about founding startups in the Silicon Prairie.

Moderated by our very own Jeff Slobotski, this Saturday morning panel featured Bo Fishback of Zaarly, a startup based in San Francisco with an office in Kansas City, and Ben Milne of Des Moines-based Dwolla. The hour-long session gave a behind-the-scenes look at how startups are taking root outside of Silicon Valley, specifically in Kansas City and Des Moines.

TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis (middle) led a discussion on whether or not there’s a tech bubble approaching.

Dwolla’s Ben Milne took part in a lively conversation comparing the Dot-com bubble in the ’90s to the current environment. With Dwolla’s headquarters in Iowa, Milne was the one panelist from outside of Silicon Valley and New York. The other panelists included Ethan Kurzweil of Bessemer Venture Partners, Peter Pham of Science and Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer of AirPR.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) made his first visit to SXSW on March 10 in order to spread the word about The Startup Act, a bill introduced by himself and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on the premise that the easier it is for creative individuals to take risks and start a business, more jobs will be created.

StartupBus

Blake Miller (back left) and the Get Wished team on their way to Austin.

Blake Miller of Kansas City-based Think Big Partners participated in the Las Vegas StartupBus team that launched Get Wished during the 72-hour hackathon on its way to SXSW. Though it didn’t make it to the finals, GetWished launched its beta site on March 10.